Democratic Presidential Candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich announced plans to drop his support of Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ)'s controversial election reform bill, HR 811, during a telephone appearance at a New Hampshire activist event over the weekend. The Ohio congressman and outspoken critic of the Iraq War also announced that he plans to re-introduce "The Paper Ballot Act," (HR 6200) a bill he filed in the last Congress, requiring the hand counting of paper ballots in Presidential elections.

Kucinich "announced he will advise Rep. Holt that the he will not be supporting HR 811, a voter reform bill rapidly losing support," according to a press release issued today by his New Hampshire campaign spokesman....

It was just one last, brilliant example of Chase refusing to live within the conventions of television. In a world where resolution is expected, no previous great television series ever has gone out on such a high note of ambiguity, such a lack of denouement.

(This is the first of a two-part series. Tomorrow: An excerpt from the author's companion article, “Senator Feinstein’s Election Reform Bill: A Constitutional Heresy,” describing even graver concerns about S. 1487, a bill recently introduced in the Senate.)

In September of 2003, when I was working with VerifiedVoting, Greg Dinger, Keone Kealoha, and I coordinated the first national activist effort in the current grassroots election integrity movement. We had a calling campaign to get more co-sponsors for Representative Rush Holt’s (D-NJ) election reform bill, then called HR 2239. In two months, the number of co-sponsors more than doubled — from 29 to 61. After the disastrous November 2003 Fairfax, Virginia, election, we rejoiced when Republican Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) signed on and the bill became bipartisan. By the end of 2003, there were 94 co-sponsors.

But Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) was chairman of the House Administration Committee, and the bill never even got a hearing. Nor did Holt’s subsequent version of the bill in the 109th Congress, HR 550. But this year’s bill in the 110th, HR 811, has been marked up in committee and is expected to soon come to the House floor for a vote. This should be a time for celebration for me, but it’s not.

After more than three years of supporting election reform bills introduced by Representative Rush Holt, I am saddened to see the many severe flaws in the version of HR 811 as it was passed out of committee last month. This year’s bill had serious flaws when it was introduced in January. Primarily, it failed to accommodate a nearly unanimous agreement among citizen activists and computer scientists who have watched election disasters over the past three years — the agreement that electronic voting machines (DREs) should not be used in U.S. elections. I worked with many people to try to get an amendment requiring a paper ballot, one that was actually to be counted, for every vote cast. To my mind, that one significant improvement would have been worth tolerating the other flaws.

But the bill that was passed out of committee still allows for invisible, unverifiable, electronic ballots on DRE touch-screens as the official ballot for the all-important initial count where electronic voting systems are used. Adding a "paper trail" to those machines makes no real difference. Voters still can’t verify the electrical charges that make up the ballots that are counted on Election Night by the DRE.

In addition to other flaws that remained in the bill as it came out of committee, some changes removed valuable safeguards from the bill, and other changes introduced new problems. (Both versions of the bill can be viewed by inputting "HR 811" at the government's legislation search engine, Thomas.gov. The complete text of the current version is here. )

In my opinion, HR 811 will cause more problems than it will solve.

My primary objection is the extreme shift in the concept of “democracy” that the bill institutes legally. Specifically, it gives a federal stamp of approval to “ballots” that will never be counted, and it endorses secret vote-counting.

Did you know that the Iraq Spending Bill passed by Congress last week also guaranteed that states that had not yet complied with HAVA would not lose their funding? Well it did that. A hidden provision in the bill extended the HAVA deadline for purchase of new voting systems out two years. Who benefited from this extension? New York state and at least one Pennsylvania County; Bucks....

Following up on last night's exclusive in which we reported that progressive Los Angeles talk radio host and former TV news anchor Bree Walker had purchased Cindy Sheehan's "Camp Casey" property in Crawford, TX.

As expected, AP, CNN, et al. picked up the story today after we reported it here. Also as expected, though we were the only outlet to have the story and neither Walker nor Sheehan issued press releases, none of the MSM outlets bothered to give us credit for having reported it here on The BRAD BLOG. So we won't bother to link to their reports either, but at least we told you they exist.

We reported last night that Sheehan was to appear live in studio this afternoon on Walker's radio show to hand her the deed to the property, and that we were also scheduled as a guest on the program as well.

The audio from our guest appearance today along with the two women follows below. The clip includes Sheehan's transfer of the deed for her land near George W. Bush's "ranch" to Walker, along with some thoughts on her plans for Camp Casey's future.

Walker told us yesterday that by purchasing the land, she was "cashing out [her] capitalist corporate stocks and buying into a legacy of peace." Today she expanded on her hopes to move forward within the anti-war movement. "I will be learning what my role is to be, in being the new caretaker and landowner of Camp Casey," she explained to listeners during her weekend broadcast on KTLK AM1150.

"Like Cindy says, this is not a movement of Right or Left, it's a movement of right or wrong. So my goal will try to be a unifying person there in Crawford, Texas. And if I'm not welcome in my anti-war activities? Well, too bad. Look out. You think Cindy Sheehan was tough? You just wait," Walker vowed.

She reiterated, during her comments about Camp Casey, that she hoped to continue its historic legacy. "That hallowed ground," Walker promised, "will remain a place for protest against war, and a place for peace and freedom."

-- Click below for selected clips from Walker's show this afternoon, with Brad Friedman on the phone and Sheehan in studio to present the deed to her land in Crawford, TX. [Appx 18 minutes]

The last week here at BRAD BLOG has been dominated by the concept of Justice: the dispensing of it and the perversion of it.

Tuesday was the Big Day: in the morning, former Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison for perjury in obstructing the investigation of the unprecedented outing of a CIA agent by senior Bush Administration officials. (Be sure to read BRAD BLOG D.C. Correspondent Margie Burns's analysis of the sentencing.) That afternoon, Bradley Schlozman appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain his many partisan, anti-democratic, anti-voter activities during his many jobs in the Bush Administration's Department of Justice. BRAD BLOG's DoJ source called Schlozman's words "on the razor's edge of perjury." "Schlozzie" may want to revise his testimony...

But the most fun this week came from BRAD BLOG stories you won't get anywhere else (at least until the MSM swipe them without attribution)... Like Bush-Cheney operative Mark "Thor" Hearne, who is miffed that BRAD BLOG has stuck a wrench into his Republican dirty tricks machine, exposing his now-defunct astroturf organization, ACVR, devoted to spreading the Republican Myth of Voter Fraud, and slamming renewed attempts to push through disenfranchising Voter I.D. laws in the State of Missouri --- Hearne's especiales de la casa --- along with exposing other Bush Administration shenanigans intended to muck with your legitimate right to vote...

Other stories you saw here first: L.A. talk radio host Bree Walker stepped up to the plate to take ownership of Cindy Sheehan's Peace House in Crawford, TX... Democratic Congressional Candidate John Russell, on his ongoing battle to get a fair hearing of the evidence in his election challenge... BRAD BLOG's exposure of PFAW's disinformation regarding the Holt bill, HR 811... The questionable editing practices of the KC Star in anti-Bush Administration stories...

Seeking to avoid voting scandals like those experienced in Florida and Ohio in the past two presidential elections, a coalition of good government and lobbying groups yesterday proposed six bills to improve New Jersey's election process. The New Jersey Citizens' Coalition on Help America Vote Act Implementation, a group of 30 organizations, offered the measures in the hope the Legislature and Gov. Jon Corzine will approve them before the state's presidential primary in early February. The key measure (S-507) proposed by the coalition --- and the only one presently embodied in legislation, sponsored by Sen. Nia H. Gill (D-Essex) and Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer) --- would outline a procedure for the mandatory audit of election results. The bill would use the margin of victory in a race to determine the extent of an audit. In closer races, more election districts, chosen at random, would be scrutinized.

Links to that story, and the other notable voting news items today, are all below...

A former Los Angles newscaster turned progressive talk radio host, Bree Walker, will be purchasing Cindy Sheehan's 5-acre property near the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

Walker, currently a resident of San Diego, was previously a television news anchor in Los Angles and New York. She confirmed the news to us moments ago, in an exclusive interview, that she intends to keep the property "as a ground for freedom and peace" and is considering erecting a memorial there for troops killed in Iraq. She hopes to create a meditation garden on the grounds and to keep it open to the public.

"I'm cashing out my capitalist corporate stocks and buying into a legacy of peace," she told The BRAD BLOG moments ago. Sheehan will be selling the property for the same price she purchased it for so as not to be seen as profiting from the sale, Walker explained.

Schlozman may be revising his Senate testimony in which he blamed Craig Donsanto, of DoJ's Public Integrity Unit (responsible for Election Crimes), for giving him the "all clear" to bring indictments for "voter fraud" in Missouri just days before the '06 election. The move was in violation of written DoJ policy which specifies that such cases that may have a political effect on elections are not to be filed until after such elections. In his testimony, Schlozman admitted (great video here) that he could have waited, but didn't.

Background and video on his previous testimony here, with a follow-up including details from a BRAD BLOG DoJ source here.

In not necessarily unrelated news, Bush lawyers up with nine additional attorneys today. Must be gettin' hot in there.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Screaming and crying, Paris Hilton was escorted from a courtroom and sent back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that she must serve out her entire 45-day sentence behind bars rather than in her Hollywood Hills home.

"It's not right!" shouted Hilton, who violated her parole in a reckless driving case. "Mom!" she called out to her mother in the audience.
...
As the final pitch was made for Hilton’s further incarceration, her entire body began trembling. She clutched a ball of tissue and tears ran down her face.

Seconds later, the judge announced his decision: “The defendant is remanded to county jail to serve the remainder of her 45-day sentence. This order is forthwith.”

Hilton screamed.

There is no reason to scroll down below this item. Nothing else, other than this, that actually happened today (or this week) either happened or matters...

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace --- who recently revealed he hadn't a clue about how many of his own U.S. troops were killed in Iraq or how many had died on 9/11 --- is being replaced by order of Sec. of Defense Robert Gates, according to news reports this morning.

Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson speculates the final straw was Pace's letter of support sent to the Judge in the Scooter Libby case:

Let there be no doubt--Perfect Peter Pace has been shown the door because of his letter to Judge Walton pleading on behalf of Scooter Libby. That letter was the final straw demonstrating his incompetence and political tin ear as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. How can you call call upon troops to conduct themselves with honor and integrity when you make lame excuses for the conduct of a convicted perjurer and obstructer of justice like Scooter Libby. Pace's Libby letter was the tipping point. His status, already shaky with the debacle of Iraq and a six year record of failure, became toxic with that letter.

Jon Soltz, an Iraq war vet and Chairman of VoteVets.org, the largest political group of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, concurs with Johnson's assessment. "General Pace grossly overstepped his bounds and poorly represented the military with his political actions and misguided statements," according to a Soltz in a statement sent to The BRAD BLOG. "The straw that broke the camel's back, for us, was his defense of a convicted felon, Scooter Libby, when it was entirely improper for him to do so, as a top leader in the military, who must remain non-partisan."

Johnson concludes: "I believe that Perfect Peter has dishonored himself and dishonored the Marine Corps by his conduct--his weak, vacillating leadership and his craven pandering to political masters....Peter has been more willing than others to sell his soul for political expediency. He leaves in September. Good riddance."

And speaking of credit where it's due, the New York Times and several other outlets today confirm the story of secret US prisons in Poland and Romania which our friend and courageous investigative journalist, Larisa Alexandrovna, reported exclusively long ago with former Polish intelligence officer David Dastych over at the news site RAW STORY.

As usual, the Times, Washington Post, AP, and the Guardian all failed to acknowledge or recognize RAW in any way, despite that the fact that RAW "provided each of the four news organizations with the" report that they are today reporting on.

It's a continuing pattern, for which those outlets always have some form of excuse ("we verified it independently, we didn't know about the 'Internet reporting' on it previously, we don't credit 'blogs'," etc.) Meanwhile, RAW, ourselves, and virtually every other Internet reporting outlet routinely credit such MSM sources when we follow up on their reporting.

Anyway, none of them credited RAW, so we won't bother linking to any of them. Here's RAW STORY's coverage --- the ones who had the story and had it right in the first place --- instead.

We'd offer a BRAD BLOG T-Shirt to the first person who can name the two folks voicing the characters in the following "Net Neutrality" video posted this week by SaveTheInternet.com as a farewell gift to AT&T's now-former CEO Ed Whitacre. But as the company who made our shirts recently moved, and are in the process of putting together a new version of the shirt, we can't do that yet.

Instead, our "congratulations for a job well done" will have to do for whoever can identify the voices and post them in comments here. (Anybody who knows beforehand is disqualified!) Suffice it to say, both the man and the woman's voice should be very well known to readers of The BRAD BLOG.

Enjoy, and please spread the word!

UPDATE 1:11pm PT: What? Nobody's got a single guess??? Say it ain't so...UPDATE 4:24pm PT: Comments were broken! No wonder nobody left a guess! Now fixed! If you tried to leave a comment previously, please try again!UPDATE 6/13/07: One cat now out of the bag. The guy playing "Big Ed Whitacre" is me. The female voice remains elusive apparently.

Representatives of three liberal-leaning groups came to the Justice Department in 2004, armed with evidence that hundreds of public-assistance agencies had illegally failed to offer voter registration to their mostly poor and minority clients.Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, which imposed the requirement, in 1993. But after these agencies registered 2.6 million people to vote in 1995-1996, the total registered plunged to about 1 million in 2003-2004.

Michael Slater, the Oregon-based deputy director of the national registration group Project Vote, said officials of the Justice Department's civil rights division showed little interest in enforcing that part of the law.
...
He said the groups' representatives told the Justice Department officials: "Look, we have physical hard evidence that states aren't doing this. They're taking their eye off the ball. We want to see some enforcement."

Slater said [Bush-appointee to the DoJ Civil Rights division, Hans] von Spakovsky listened quietly and then made comments to the effect of "hmmm" and "that's interesting," but took no action.

Emails from Von Spakovsky recently revealed that he was also busy strong-arming and attempting "deals" with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) on a number of issues concerning disenfranchising Photo ID poll restrictions around that same time. For his efforts in all of the above, of course, von Spakovsky would later be recess-appointed by Bush to chair the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). We yelled about that appointment back in January of 2006 when nobody was listening.

A sampling of the extraordinary disparity in numbers of voter registrations taken by government agencies under the Clinton DoJ v. Bush DoJ...

The Connecticut House has voted 150-1 to follow the unanimous “yes” vote of the Senate to require audits in 10 percent of randomly selected polling districts during state elections starting in 2008. Only 13 states require audits of election results, and most stipulate far less than 10 percent of polling places. Our congratulations go to the voters in the state of Connecticut.

The Sarasota County, Florida Commissioners decided that not only will they follow the mandate from the voters to dump their ES&S iVotronic DREs but also to dump ES&S. One commissioner said, “I’ve lost faith in ES&S entirely”. The county will now turn to Diebold to provide their optical-scan voting system.

Links to those stories, and many other such notable voting news items from today, all follow below...